Plato quotes - page 9

It would be a hard task to discover the maker and father of this universe of ours, and even if we did find him, it would be impossible to speak of him to everyone. (Plato)
Socrates: The shoemaker, for example, uses a square tool, and a circular tool, and other tools for cutting? Alcibiades: Yes. Socrates: But the tool is not the same as the cutter and user of the tool? Alcibiades: Of course not. ... Socrates: Then what shall we say of the shoemaker? Does he cut with his tools only or with his hands? Alcibiades: With his hands as well. Socrates: He uses his hands too? Alcibiades: Yes. ... Socrates: And does not a man use the whole body? Alcibiades: Certainly. Socrates: And that which uses is different from that which is used? Alcibiades: True. Socrates: Then a man is not the same as his own body? Alcibiades: That is the inference. Socrates: What is he, then? Alcibiades: I cannot say. Socrates: Nay, you can say that he is the user of the body. Alcibiades: Yes. Socrates: And the user of the body is the soul? Alcibiades: Yes, the soul. View quote
Plato
As a breeze or an echo rebounds from the smooth rocks and returns whence it came, so does the stream of beauty, passing through the eyes which are the windows of the soul, come back to the beautiful one. View quote
Plato
I only wish that wisdom were the kind of thing that flowed ... from the vessel that was full to the one that was empty. View quote
Plato
Meno: I feel, somehow, that I like what you are saying. Socrates: And I, Meno, like what I am saying. Some things I have said of which I am not altogether confident. But that we shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to enquire, than we should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing and no use in seeking to know what we do not know; - that is a theme upon which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power. View quote
Plato
But if with your mind's eye you regard the absolute great and these many great things in the same way, will not another great appear beyond, by which all these must appear to be great? View quote
Plato
Love sees no enemies...fear does. View quote
Plato
Sons, the event proves that your fathers were brave men; for we might have lived dishonourably, but have preferred to die honourably rather than bring you and your children into disgrace, and rather than dishonour our own fathers and forefathers. View quote
Plato
Oh dear Pan and all the other Gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. View quote
Plato
I shall argue that to seem to speak well of the gods to men is far easier than to speak well of men to men: for the inexperience and utter ignorance of his hearers about any subject is a great assistance to him who has to speak of it, and we know how ignorant we are concerning the gods. View quote
Plato
All that is said by any of us can only be imitation and representation. (Plato)
Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good, just, and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but nevertheless dazzling, passionate, and eternal form. View quote
Plato
The very rich are not good. View quote
Plato
Beauty is the splendor of truth. View quote
Plato
I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work. View quote
Plato
When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader. View quote
Plato
Know one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. View quote
Plato
It is clear to everyone that astronomy at all events compels the soul to look upwards, and draws it from the things of this world to the other. View quote
Plato
The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort. View quote
Plato
Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all; too much cleverness and too much learning, accompanied with ill bringing-up, are far more fatal. View quote
Plato
Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. (Plato)
The first and best victory is to conquer self to be conquered by self is of all things most shameful and vile. View quote
Plato
Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike. View quote
Plato
We are twice armed if we fight with faith. View quote
Plato
There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands. View quote
Plato